Godzilla RPG

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:36 am

Does anyone know of any good system for representing Godzilla style movie monsters? If not, would anyone be interested in helping me make such a system?

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:47 am

Godzilla vs. Gamera or Godzilla vs. the citizens of Tokyo?

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:54 am

This is all I could find with my search. I don't know if they are good or not though.

http://www.rpgnow.com/advanced_search_r ... n_artist=1

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:59 am

I'm talking Godzilla and friends vs Other monsters AND the citizens of Tokyo. Thanks Leress, I'll look into those.

--Edit--
The games that Leress linked to don't exactly fit the bill but the game 'Giant Monster Rampage' looks like it might have basic character creation and combat rules (although I'm not sure how much I would trust such a game to be balanced). In any event I think I would like to go about designing a character creation system for giant monsters. Giant monster rampage has kingdoms -or broad categories or types of monsters- and which effect statistics and powers and is strictly a points buy system. I think I would want to do something like 3rd edition Shadowrun (maybe the same in 4th, I wouldn't know) where you rank Kingdom (race), stats and powers (as well as anything else that may be relevant). My questions are these: What kingdoms do we want? What stats do we want? What powers do we want? What combat system do we want to design these stats and powers for? Any input would be appreciated.

For Kingdoms I would say:
Aliens (Gigan)
Underground Monsters (Megalon)
Robots (mecha-godzilla)
Mutants (Godzilla)
Giants and Prehistoric Creatures (Mothra)
Other (Jet Jaguar)

For stats I would want to represent physical strength, stamina, damage reduction or resistance, energy for fueling powers and then social stats that are paid for separately.

Powers, I have no idea.

RandomCasualty2 · Post by **RandomCasualty2** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 5:47 am

Anguirus wrote:I'm talking Godzilla and friends vs Other monsters AND the citizens of Tokyo.

Well really don't even worry about Godzilla decimating Tokyo. Pretty much he's invulnerable to conventional weapons, so simulating godzilla rampaging through a bunch of tanks might as well just be abstracted and ignored unless you're just want to run a "I'm invulnerable but roll anyway" wank fest.

Basically what you'd want is Godzilla facing other monsters and really, I'd honestly just use Battletech, since that's pretty much what this game is going to become. Just a bunch of huge things fighting each other. And if you replace mechs with monsters then there you go.

It would be a shitty RPG, because there's no real roleplaying to it. It's just a tactical monster skirmish.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 5:58 am

Yeah, Giant Monster Rampage is a tactical game really. I've never played it, but the game idea was interesting. Too bad I read it before knowing about how to evaluate game design/balance.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:19 am

RandomCasualty2 wrote: It would be a shitty RPG, because there's no real roleplaying to it. It's just a tactical monster skirmish.

I disagree. In some of the Godzilla movies the monsters talk to one another and create friendships. Godzilla and Anguirus become long term friends when Anguirus becomes a good monster. While character development and interpersonal relationships may not be the focus of most of the movies in the series, it could easily be the focus of a game. I don't want to play a tactical monster skirmish, I want to play a game where I take on the role of monster in much the same way that you do in Promethean, except on a larger scale and, hopefully, with a mood and theme that are actually fun to roleplay.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:38 am

Well, there's the "Monster Island" books from Firefly Games.
http://firefly-games.com/catalog/produc ... ucts_id=43
Not much of an RPG, more of a tactical mini's game, but it's a start. Supposedly the mosnters are compatible with the company's other games with the same system, so maybe there's more of an RPG in the system, and one could conceivably merge the game with the actual system.

The game's a lot of fun, but I've never done RP with it.

Thymos · Post by **Thymos** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:16 am

There is always monsterpocalypse. monsterpocalypsegame.com

RandomCasualty2 · Post by **RandomCasualty2** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:53 pm

Anguirus wrote: I disagree. In some of the Godzilla movies the monsters talk to one another and create friendships. Godzilla and Anguirus become long term friends when Anguirus becomes a good monster.

I have to say. I've never seen Godzilla talk in any movie.

Mostly he just shifts from smash to roar/screech and back again.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 5:16 pm

RandomCasualty2 wrote: I have to say. I've never seen Godzilla talk in any movie.

Mostly he just shifts from smash to roar/screech and back again.

In Godzilla vs. Gigan he and Anguirus have a ridiculously long conversation that is very hard to take seriously in which they use complicated human language. As early as Godzilla vs. Ghidora they were having him communicate with grunts and body language. After, the scene in Gigan was poorly received they never tried to give any of the monsters human language but when they encounter characters like Jet Jaguar they are able to understand human language and when they are interacting they are able to express emotions and concepts through grunts and body language and friendships do form. For the purposes of an RPG I would assume that monsters can communicate any way they wish to but it is roughly as effective as human language.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:09 pm

Thymos wrote:There is always monsterpocalypse. monsterpocalypsegame.com

The content of that game is almost entirely how the Giant monster rampage game works. Only with pre-made monsters, maps etc.

the original game tells you to have people bring in toy monsters, and building models (or lego blocks, or pieces of paper) for 'structure', and toy soldiers for soldiers and such.

TavishArtair · Post by **TavishArtair** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:26 am

I'd be more interested in a system that handled Giant Robots fighting Kaiju, than just Kaiju on Kaiju stuff.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:57 am

TavishArtair wrote:I'd be more interested in a system that handled Giant Robots fighting Kaiju, than just Kaiju on Kaiju stuff.

well, a system for kaiju should be able to handle giant robots just fine.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 am

Prak_Anima wrote:
TavishArtair wrote:I'd be more interested in a system that handled Giant Robots fighting Kaiju, than just Kaiju on Kaiju stuff.
well, a system for kaiju should be able to handle giant robots just fine.

...and vice versa. No reason you couldn't do giant monsters in Battletech.

-Username17

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:48 pm

FrankTrollman wrote: ...and vice versa. No reason you couldn't do giant monsters in Battletech.

-Username17

I'm unfamiliar with Battletech but isn't it a tactical war game and not an RPG? I would imagine that the level of detail and length of combat would be inappropriate for a roleplaying game.

IGTN · Post by **IGTN** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:53 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:...and vice versa. No reason you couldn't do giant monsters in Battletech.

-Username17

Battletech has a bit of an emphasis on ranged attacks. Now, sure, if you want Godzilla breathing fire every turn, that works, but if you want Godzilla to breathe fire once or twice and then close to melee, that doesn't work quite so well.

I haven't used melee combat extensively in Battletech, so I don't know how well the system works, but, reading it, it seems like you get one, sometimes two, attacks/turn with it, whereas with weapon combat you can get a lot more (Black Hawk/Nova has 12 lasers at one attack each, for instance).

That said, this seems pretty easy to fix, if you create a full attack routine that allows Godzilla to make multiple physical attacks in a turn, against different targets (claw/claw/bite/tail sweep, for instance)

Actually, it occurs to me for game design: everyone plays a giant of some kind, exactly what kind is your character class: Godzilla might be the average/balanced type, or be exceptionally tough, or whatever, Giant Robot would be the ranged emphasis, Giant Moth might give you exceptional mobility, and so on.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:16 pm

I was thinking I would use these as the basic groups or classes (although I wanted for it to be classless):
Aliens (Gigan)
Underground Monsters (Megalon)
Robots (mecha-godzilla)
Mutants (Godzilla)
Giants and Prehistoric Creatures (Mothra)
Other (Jet Jaguar)

For the fifth group I mean giant mundane creatures like King Kong or Mothra (although Mothra isn't really a mundane creature). I don't really know what to call the 'other' section. I have a character archetype in mind but I don't know how to express it. Anyway, a lot of people have mentioned tactical war games which would be appropriate were this a different project but I am looking to make a role playing game. I want combat to be only a part of the game that advances plot and resolves conflict. This isn't the sort of game that a lot of people would like to play, I don't imagine, but I can see it being a fun game about tragic monstrous heroes fighting to defend a civilization that cannot accept them against enemies that are more like them than different.

RandomCasualty2 · Post by **RandomCasualty2** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:32 pm

Anguirus wrote:Anyway, a lot of people have mentioned tactical war games which would be appropriate were this a different project but I am looking to make a role playing game. I want combat to be only a part of the game that advances plot and resolves conflict. This isn't the sort of game that a lot of people would like to play, I don't imagine, but I can see it being a fun game about tragic monstrous heroes fighting to defend a civilization that cannot accept them against enemies that are more like them than different.

Yeah, I just really don't think there's a heck of a lot of potential for it as an RPG. I mean, granted I havent' seen any of the talking godzilla movies, but I really can't imagine much roleplaying in any of that. Since giant monsters as a whole really don't interact with much. Even if they can talk to each other, it's a rather limited amount of world interaction, and they don't have any story options besides "Godzilla smash".

Roleplaying wise, not sure what you'd even be doing. Is Godzilla going to sit down on a mountain and play poker against mothra? After you get by the initial conversation of:
"Man it sucks... everytime I try to walk down to Tokyo they fire missiles at me."
"Yeah me too. Lets be friends."

Where do you go from there? Unless you're planning on having some city of giant monsters where all the creatures can talk to each other, I suspect Godzilla just won't be able to do much. And rules wise this means you're not going to need a social system or anything like that. You just need to have rules for handling what godzilla does best: Rip shit up.

And given that monster battles tend to take awhile and are few and far between (you will probably have one or two fights at most in a game), having somewhat long tactical combats may be okay so it seems a bit more epic. I generally think you could easily adapt Battletech to handle it. And if you don't really know or like Battletech, consider just using D&D 4E. I mean, 4E is fairly well suited to handle it too. The battles take some time to resolve and every creature has a small number of gimmicks that they do and that's it.

Adapting battletech would be pretty simple, all you'd have to do is make more complex rules for melee attacks.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:05 pm

RandomCasualty2 wrote: Yeah, I just really don't think there's a heck of a lot of potential for it as an RPG. I mean, granted I havent' seen any of the talking godzilla movies, but I really can't imagine much roleplaying in any of that. Since giant monsters as a whole really don't interact with much. Even if they can talk to each other, it's a rather limited amount of world interaction, and they don't have any story options besides "Godzilla smash".

Roleplaying wise, not sure what you'd even be doing. Is Godzilla going to sit down on a mountain and play poker against mothra? After you get by the initial conversation of:
"Man it sucks... everytime I try to walk down to Tokyo they fire missiles at me."
"Yeah me too. Lets be friends."

Where do you go from there? Unless you're planning on having some city of giant monsters where all the creatures can talk to each other, I suspect Godzilla just won't be able to do much. And rules wise this means you're not going to need a social system or anything like that. You just need to have rules for handling what godzilla does best: Rip shit up.

Point taken. Godzilla does, traditionally have a place called 'monster island' where all the monsters live together. I would up play the significance of monster island and its various power struggles and intrigues. This game would, of course, be a departure from the movies because the movies don't care about the monsters when they aren't destroying things. For all we know, when Godzilla isn't destroying things he's a chemistry student (not that I would advocate such an extremist position). Monsters in this setting could interact with human society, individual monsters, monster society and alien societies but not individual humans or aliens on any appreciable way. Their mode of interaction does not have to be 'smash'. Maybe the battle that you see in the movies was the culmination of years of failed politicking.

RandomCasualty2 wrote: And given that monster battles tend to take awhile and are few and far between (you will probably have one or two fights at most in a game), having somewhat long tactical combats may be okay so it seems a bit more epic. I generally think you could easily adapt Battletech to handle it. And if you don't really know or like Battletech, consider just using D&D 4E. I mean, 4E is fairly well suited to handle it too. The battles take some time to resolve and every creature has a small number of gimmicks that they do and that's it.

Adapting battletech would be pretty simple, all you'd have to do is make more complex rules for melee attacks.

You're right, again, that battles should feel epic and having them be long tactical combats would provide for that. I don't know much about Battletech so I can't say if it would do what I want. Primarily I want for the character creation system to allow for radical individuality. One monster should look and feel completely different from another. This pretty much eliminates 4E. You guys do seem convinced that Battletech would work, though, so I will defiantly take a look. I don't know if anyone else is interested in doing what I'm interested in doing. If it turns out that no one else cares then this discussion can end right now, no hard feelings.

TavishArtair · Post by **TavishArtair** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:12 pm

Just to take an entirely variant tack... if you're going to have a game about being huge intelligent monsters, why not play it as The Hulk, if The Hulk was actually a part-time Godzilla instead of just a mildly large green guy? You could even have the Original Kaiju there, but have the action focus more on the in-betweens...

Some say it was the wrath of God. Others say it was the Devil himself incarnate. No one can be certain what was true anymore when the monsters walked through the cities. London, New York, Moscow, New Delhi, Beijing... even, ironically, Tokyo, which was besieged by none other than Gojira itself, a giant black-green lizard-thing. The rest fell victim to everything from giant birds with wings of lightning, to giant fire-breathing monkeys, to metallic colossi. In the wreckage, it seemed like humanity had been cast down by their own forgotten myths, forsaken by the gods they had abandoned.

... but that's when the real monsters arose. In the wake of these events, there were survivors. But not all of them were... human, anymore. Sure, they looked it... but something in them changed. They became monsters, in new and twisted parodies of the things that had destroyed their lives. The horrors from before had retreated into mystery, as if their sentence had been passed... but their legacy lived on in these cursed half-things. Doomed to wander the earth, terrible monstrosities underneath the surface...

So please... don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:23 am

If anyone cares, I've chosen to adapt Marvel Universe RPG because I feel like diceless works for monsters for largely the same reasons it works well for super heroes. I'll post my setting stuff and alterations to MUR when I'm done for anyone who may care.